Tom is my father. He keeps me honest and so have you (and so did Rick, but where is he now?). Thanks for your contributions to my blog.

P.S. I like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert very much.

I’m not such a humorless guy. Heck, one of my first articles for Compass poked fun at wine writing. Of course, I’m sure I offended some people. After all, one of my quips had to do with the St. Lawrence cement plant, which at the time was quite a hot issue. But as you must know, that’s in the nature of most humor: it usually has a target. I laugh uproariously most nights at Jon Stewart. Perhaps you don’t. The wheel turns.

So sure, I can take a joke. You can poke fun at those silly secessionists in their Bierkenstocks [sp?]. I’ll even allow that their idea is, practically speaking, absurd. It’s about as likely to happen as an alien invasion.

The truth is, sadly, that I’ve reached blog burnout. It’s not just that I have too many work and personal projects at the moment, which I do. It’s not that your writing isn’t smart and entertaining, because it is. It’s not that I don’t appreciate your willingness to take thoughtful and original positions on issues rather than just hewing to some party line, because I do.

And it’s not, in the main, because I “disagree” with a lot of your positions. In fact, that’s probably what drew me to jump into the fray in the first place. I like a good row now and then, and we’ve had some doozies. I took the bait. I suppose, in my conceited way, I saw an opportunity to put some balance into the things you are broadcasting and maybe steer you away from some of your more extreme positions along the way.

The bottom line is, I’m taking my toys from the sandbox and going home. I think you’re playing mean and dirty, now. It’s all about name-calling and labeling. People are anti-this or anti-that, right or wrong about the “economy,” yadda yadda. Just because it comes somewhere from the putative “middle” doesn’t make it any better.

You bundle up a tangled mess of assumptions, spoken and unspoken, and them serve them up as gourmet brain food. Yuck. And that’s the other problem. Untangling this dish would take me for-friggin’-ever. There’s just not enough time in a day. Even if I try, I suspect that it would be hopeless, like a dish of spaghetti (to continue the metaphor). If I pulled on one strand, you’d just tug on a different one.

I take some consolation from knowing that I’m not alone. Tom Cowgill (who is he, anyway — your brother?!) seems to be making a valiant effort to take up the banner, but I fear he’s doomed to fail and give up, like me. I think he’s dead on when he says your thing about the “left” and the “economy” lacks even cursory analysis. To that I would only add, where does one even begin to refute that, when you have defined the debate in such sweeping–and ultimately meaningless–terms?

Poor Tom. How long will he persist?

As for me, I’ve spent a lifetime dealing with this kind of thing, so I suppose I could be accused of having a certain lack of patience with it. My father and brothers all are wonderfully adept at verbal ju-jitsu, using political argument as a pretext for skewering others.

Well, that’s my last word for now, though I can’t promise I won’t poke my head in from time to time. I’ll see you around.

Your commie-pinko-tree-hugging-radical-pacifist-socialist-big-government-loving-corporate-hating-global-warming-screaming-leftist-Naderite-couch-potato-activist-endangered-species-lovin’-tax-the-rich-oswald-didn’t-act-alone-very-sleepy friend,

–Fred–

And yes, the professor might very well read my blog. Check out Technorati, the blog search engine where John Fund found me. People involved in the public arena use it (and others like it) all the time to see who’s writing about them.

BTW I am a “hybrid who tilts Libertarian” — not a centrist. I have abandoned that label in favor of a longer more accurate one (sorry, Fred). I don’t really claim to have moderate positions, but those positions do get me in trouble with both the left and the right.

Blogs are full of snappy opinion. They are typically written to educate, motivate and entertain. You can get mainstream analysis on any op-ed page.

P.S. The far right is also clueless about economics. In my travels through the red states, I’ve found that a lot of them don’t even care about the economy so long as they can pay their bills, religion isn’t banished from the public arena and no one gets an abortion.

Re: gun registration. You’re going to extremes again. No one proposes that registration will stop crime, just that it will help. Do you support less registration?

Re: “socially responsible company”. You brought up the phrase. I cannot tell you what it means to you. I agree that “companies and individuals should be compelled to obey the law”. The only question is what the laws should be. The ones who do not believe in obeying the law are mostly on the right.

Re: nukes. You say “I merely raised the question as to what the professor would do. He is free to answer it.” What is the purpose of this question? Do you expect that he reads your blog. “What if the plant at Vernon is owned by a “socially irresponsible tyrannical multi-national corporation?” That’s just being a smart-aleck.

Re: Vermont secession. You say “But this idea of secession is so looney that it could only come from a state” like Vermont - not true. This premise of your article is false. There have been several movements for secession in the west by the right. The most serious movement for secession was from the Confederacy, not lefties.

The purpose of the article seems to be to tar the left. Saying “It’s the entire notion of Vermont secession itself that illustrates “how clueless the far left is about economic issues.” is mudslinging because it lacks even cursory analysis. Since the right also contains secessionists, they must be clueless, too. That only leaves the middle. Oh, but that’s you.

You need to lighten up a little and have some fun. Public discourse need not always be a sober-minded, examination of public policy with few labels (or readers). If that’s what you want, go to the Brookings Institution website. I don’t throw mud but discuss issues in a lively way. Apparently you find both my means and conclusions to be disagreeable. Sorry they’re not to your liking.

Here, let me start: Nuclear Power–Our Energy Future or False Salvation?

Discuss.

–Fred–

So the dream of the Vermont secessionsists is to have a country with a large standing army, compulsory military service and a ratio of one gun for every three people, so long as the guns are all registered? Perhaps, but it sounds like a stretch. The point is we have lots of guns, many of them registered guns used to commit crimes, and we have a high crime rate nonetheless. That’s the enigma for the anti-gun crowd.

I’m not sure I know what a “socially responsible company” is. Sounds highly subjective to me. I think companies and individuals should be compelled to obey the law.

Re: Nukes. I merely raised the question as to what the professor would do. He is free to answer it. What if the plant at Vernon is owned by a “socially irresponsible tyrannical multi-national corporation?”

It’s the entire notion of Vermont secession itself that illustrates “how clueless the far left is about economic issues.” Next door in Quebec, the sovereignty issue was initially driven by the leftist PQ government. Thankfully, sanity prevailed on two occasions.

Re Switzerland and guns. There’s no liberal’s enigma here. There are lots of guns and they are all registered. I know of no prominent liberals who want to take guns away from law abiding citizens. The big difference between the the left and the right is in registration. We lefties are for it and the loony right is not.

Re “socially responsible companies.” Are you for the idea or against it? Socially irresponsible companies will require more regulation.

Re nuclear power. Does Prof Naylor suggest eliminating it with no alternative proposal? Some on the left favor nuclear power. Do you know where Prof Naylor stands?

Nothing in the article “illustrates how clueless the far left is about economic issues.”

Life will be wonderful and warm!

Marshall